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SELF-TRANSCENDING KNOWLEDGE:
Sensing and Organizing Around Emerging Opportunities
Forthcoming in:
Journal of Knowledge Management
Special Issue on Tacit Knowledge Exchange and Active Learning
forthcoming in:
Nonaka, I. and D. Teece (ed.): Managing Industrial Knowledge ,Sage (in press)
Japanese translation in:
Soshiki Kagaku (Organizational Science), Vol. 33, No. 3, 2000, p. 14-29,
Claus Otto ScharmerSociety for Organizational LearningMIT Sloan School of Management
Cambridge MA 02142Phone (1) 617-258 8132Fax (1) 617-876 0191scharmer@MIT.EDU
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The author
Claus Otto Scharmer is a founding research member of the Society for OrganizationalLearning (SoL), a visiting scholar at the Sloan School of Management, M.I.T., and alecturer at the University of Innsbruck. He also is a faculty member of the FujitsuGlobal Knowledge Institute, Tokyo.
Abstract
The paper introduces the concept of not-yet-embodied or self-transcending knowledge.The concept of self-transcending knowledge proposes a distinction between two typesof tacit knowledge: tacit-embodied knowledge on the one hand and not-yet-embodiedknowledge on the other hand. The distinction is relevant because each of the threeforms of knowledge--explicit, tacit-embodied, and self-transcending--is based ondifferent epistemological assumptions and requires a different type of knowledgeenvironment and learning infrastructure. Moreover, the differentiation among marketswith decreasing, steady, and increasing returns suggests that in order to successfullycompete for increasing return markets leaders need a new type of knowledge thatallows them to sense, tune into and actualize emerging business opportunities--that is,to tap into the sources of not-yet-embodied knowledge.
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Introduction
Throughout the twentieth century, industry in the so-called developed
economies was transformed from one that largely processed raw materials and
conducted manufacturing to one that largely processes information and knowledge
(Teece, 1998).1 As a consequence, the logic of competition has shifted from markets
with decreasing returns to markets with increasing returns driven by positive feedback
loops (Arthur, 1996). According to Arthur, in increasing-return markets, that which is
ahead tends to stay ahead: “If knowledge-based companies are competing in winner-
takes-most markets, then managing becomes redefined as series of quests for the next
technological winner” Bill Gates is not so much a wizard of technology, says Arthur,
“but a wizard of precognition, of discerning the shape of the next game.” Arthur
compares the new competitive game around emergent markets and technologies with
casino gambling, where part of the game is to choose which games to play:
We can imagine the top figures in high tech--the Gateses and Gerstners
and Groves of their industries--as milling in a large casino. Over at this
table, a game is starting called multimedia. Over at this one, a game
called Web services. In the corner is electronic banking. There are many
such tables. You sit at one. How much to play? you ask. Three billion,
the croupier replies. Who’ll be playing? We won’t know until they show
up. What are the rules? Those’ll emerge as the game unfolds. What are
my odds of winning? We can’t say. Do you still want to play? (Ibid., p.
104)
Leaders confronted with this question face a new challenge. The challenge is to
develop the capacity for “precognition,” the ability to sense and actualize emerging
potentials. To do this, leaders must be able to see the emerging opportunities before
they become manifest in the marketplace. This kind of knowledge can be thought of as
tacit knowledge prior to its embodiment, or “self-transcending” knowledge.
Self-transcending knowledge--the ability to sense and presence the emerging
opportunities, to see the coming-into-being of the new--is usually associated with
artists, not business managers. For example, there are three ways to look at a painter
and her work: one can look (1) at the completed painting; (2) one can watch the
painter in the process of painting; or (3) one can watch the painter before she lifts a
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brush, as she considers the blank canvas. Each structural perspective offers a different
type of access to the artist’s work.
The completed picture is the explicit reflection of the artist’s work. The artist
in the process of painting offers insight into the tacit knowledge she brings to the
work. The artist in front of her blank canvas senses the emergent painting, much as
Michelangelo, talking about his famous sculpture of David, sensed the emergent figure:
“David was already in the stone. I just took away everything that wasn’t David.” The
ability to see a David where others just see rock is what distinguishes the truly great
artist. The same applies to leaders. As J. Jaworski, founder of the American Leadership
Forum (ALF), says: “The capacity to sense and actualize emergent realities distinguishes
great entrepreneurial leaders from the rest” (Jaworski and Scharmer, 2000). Today,
leaders increasingly find themselves standing in front of their own blank canvases. They
are faced not only with the challenge of figuring out what in their business
environment may contain the potential new “David”—but also with how to take away
everything that isn’t David. In order to learn to intuit emergent form, leaders have to
access a new type of not-yet-embodied knowledge.
While the knowledge management discussion of the 1990s revolved around the
interplay of two forms of knowledge--explicit and tacit (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995)--
the underlying proposition of this essay is that the discussion of the current decade will
revolve around the interplay of three forms of knowing: explicit, tacit, and self-
transcending knowledge.
The purpose of this essay is to introduce the concept of self-transcending
knowledge. The remainder is organized into seven sections, which (1) introduce the
concept of self-transcending knowledge and discuss the implications in terms of (2)
knowledge types, (3) epistemology, (4) basho, (5) infrastructures, and (6) requisite
conversational complexity. Section (7) discusses the preceding sections.
1 Self-Transcending Knowledge: The Other Side of Tacit Knowing
At a 1997 meeting in Palo Alto, California, Richard LeVitt, Hewlett-Packard’s
director of quality, explained where HP’s corporate quality came from and where he
saw it going:
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In the earliest stage we mainly focused on product outcomes and
concrete results like product reliability. Though these are important, we
realized we could achieve more by shifting our focus upstream toward
the processes that precede and produce the results. The issue was, How
can we get our processes right? This stage of managing quality was the
heart of the TQM movement in the 1980s.
But once you and your competitors have the processes right, the
question is, what will be next? What will be the next basis of
competitive advantage? For us, one critical new focus area is how
managers can improve their quality of thought--especially their deep
thought about customers and the experiences they should have with us.
LeVitt’s depiction of HP’s shift of focus from results to the processes that
produce these results, and then from processes to the preceding thought conditions that
allowed those processes to emerge, corresponds with the analogy of the painter. Like
the painter, who used a different type of knowledge at each stage of creating a
painting, each stage of quality management requires a different type of knowledge.
When measuring the outcomes of quality, managers need explicit knowledge. When
improving process management like TQM, the overall focus is on knowledge in use--
that is, tacit knowledge. However, when moving toward the upstream domain of
quality that LeVitt described--improving qualities of experience, awareness, and
thought --a manager has to access a different type of knowing. He finds himself in the
same situation as the artist. The leverage for improving the quality of thought is not be
found in things that are around him, but within his own self. The lever is in the
capacity of the self to see the David hidden within the stone.
Figure 1 depicts the three forms of knowledge using the model of an iceberg.
Above the water line is explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is the least difficult to
disseminate and distribute. Below the water line are two types of tacit knowledge:
tacit-embodied knowledge and self-transcending knowledge. Both forms of tacit
knowledge are very difficult to disseminate and to transfer from one part of the
organization to another.
The example of a loaf of bread can be used to ground these distinctions. Certain
kinds of information about bread--like its weight, price, and ingredients--are examples
of explicit knowledge. The activities of baking and producing the bread are examples
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of tacit knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), and the knowledge that enables a
particular baker to invent baking bread in the first place is an example of not-yet-
embodied knowledge. This “self-transcending knowledge” is tacit knowledge prior to
its embodiment in day-to-day practices.
explicit knowledge
tacit knowledge[embodied]
se l f -transcending knowledge[not-ye t -embodied]
Figure 1: Three Forms of Knowledge
The discussion of knowledge management (KM) has evolved historically in
three phases, each with a dominant point of view. During phase I, the primary focus
was on explicit knowledge. KM revolved around information technology (IT)
solutions. From this vantage point, knowledge was conceived of as a thing. Hence,
knowledge could be gathered and stored in remote data banks and IT systems.
Knowledge was nothing but information, and knowledge management the processing
of information.
In the second phase, the process of knowledge creation took precedence
(Nonaka, 1991; 1994). Here knowledge was conceived of as tacit knowledge,
embodied in human action. Knowledge, according to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), is
not a thing but a process. In this phase, KM started to revolve around the interplay
between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Knowledge creation evolves in a
spiraling movement between the explicit and implicit knowledge held by individuals,
teams, and the organization (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).
However, Nonaka and Takeuchi left one question unanswered: What is the
force that drives the knowledge spiral itself? This question leads directly to the third
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phase of KM, which focuses attention on the thought conditions that allow processes
and tacit knowledge to evolve in the first place. Examples of this form of knowing are
what Nonaka and Konno (1998) call “originating ba”; what von Krogh (1998) refers
to with his notion of “care”; what Senge (1990) calls “personal mastery”; what Kappler
(1993) calls “presencing”; and what Scharmer (1999) calls “not-yet-embodied”
knowledge.
All of these refer to a territory of knowledge formation that is upstream from
both explicit and tacit-embodied knowledge. It is the kind of knowledge Buber (1970)
meant when he talked about the basic word “I-Thou,” and Heidegger (1993) meant
when he talked about Being as “coming from absence into presence” and truth as
coming from “concealment into unconcealment,” and what the Japanese philosopher
Nishida was referring to when he spoke of “pure experience” (1990) and “action
intuition” (1987). All of these scholars point at a formative state of knowledge that
precedes the separation of subject and object, or knower and known, as we will see in
the following sections.
Summarizing, the concept of self-transcending knowledge proposes a
distinction between two types of tacit knowledge: tacit-embodied knowledge on the
one hand and not-yet-embodied knowledge on the other hand. The distinction is
relevant because each of the three forms of knowledge--explicit, tacit-embodied, and
self-transcending--is based on different epistemological assumptions and requires a
different type of knowledge infrastructure, as is discussed below. Moreover, the
differentiation among markets with decreasing, steady, and increasing returns suggests
that in order to successfully compete for increasing return markets leaders need a new
type of knowledge that allows them to “sense and actualize what wants to emerge”
(Jaworski and Scharmer, 2000)--that is, to tap into the sources of not-yet-embodied
knowing.
2 Mapping The Landscape of Knowledge In Organization
The framework below is based on two distinctions: one epistemological and the
other ontological (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). The epistemological distinction
differentiates among three forms of knowledge: explicit knowledge (K1), tacit
knowledge (K2: knowledge in use), and self-transcending knowledge (K3: not-yet-
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embodied knowledge). The ontological distinction differentiates among four levels of
corporate action (Scharmer, forthcoming):
• A1: delivering results that create value (performing)
•A2: improving the process-based context of performing (redesigning)
•A3: improving the assumption-based context of performing (reframing)
• A4: improving the intention-based context of performing (regenerating)
A1 represents the stream of customer-focused value creation. The other three
action levels represent underlying layers of embedding context, of “contextual
activities” that improve the conditions for and quality of A1. Combined, both
distinctions result in the framework of twelve types of knowledge shown in Table 1. 2
Table 1: Twelve Types of Knowledge in Organizations
Epistemological /ActionType
K1:Explicit Knowledge
K2:Tacit Knowledge
K3:Self-Transcending Knowledge
A1: Performing Know-what Knowledge in use Reflection-in-action
A2: Redesigning Know-how Theory in use Imagination-in-action
A3: Reframing Know-why Metaphysics in use Inspiration-in-action
A4: Regenerating Know-who Ethics/Aesthetics inuse
Intuition-in-action
The epistemological distinctions between the three forms of knowledge
(explicit, tacit, and self-transcending) are depicted in columns K1, K2, and K3. Based
on the differentiation among the three columns (Table 1), the historical development
of knowledge management can be presented as a play that is enacted on three stages.
Act I: Knowledge About Things. Act I takes place on a single platform. We
will call this platform Stage One. On this stage, knowledge is conceived from the
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traditional point of view: knowledge is a thing. Thus knowledge can be gathered and
stored in remote data banks and IT systems. Knowledge is nothing but information. The
traditional IT-based view of knowledge still prevails as the dominant view in most
contemporary institutions. In Western business schools and universities, for instance,
the main emphasis is on conceptual and explicit knowledge, not on building skills and
competence for action. Examples of this kind of knowledge are a balance sheet (know-
what), accounting rules (know-how), reports based on activity-based costing (know-
why), and the purpose statement of a company (know-who). In all these examples,
knowledge is conveyed in the same structure: as a piece of information that is separate
from the practice or reality it denotes.
The challenge on this stage is related to relevance (Johnson and Kaplan, 1991):
How do these types of explicit knowledge relate and contribute to the capacity to
innovate and create value?
Act II: Knowledge About Doing Things. Act II takes place as the interplay
between the action on two stages. On the second stage, knowledge is not a thing but a
process. Knowledge is conceived of as tacit knowledge that is embodied in human
action. Thus Act II is based on the interplay between explicit knowledge (Stage One)
and tacit-embodied knowledge (Stage Two).
Act II is largely based on the work of Nonaka (1991, 1994) and Nonaka and
Takeuchi (1995). Says Nonaka (1996, p. 668): “What I found was that the existing
theory of information processing is not enough. The process of innovation is not simply
information processing; it’s a process to capture, create, leverage, and retain
knowledge.” In their theory of the knowledge-creating company, Nonaka and Takeuchi
present a view of knowledge creation that takes into account both “stages”--that is,
explicit and tacit knowledge. Knowledge develops as it cycles between explicit and
tacit forms of knowledge in an evolving “knowledge spiral.”
Today, Nonaka and Takeuchi’s (1995) work has become widely accepted as
state-of-the-art. In this view, knowledge is a living process. Examples of this kind of
knowledge focus on surfacing: (a) knowledge in use (Lave and Wenger, 1991); (b)
theories in use (Argyris and Schön, 1996); (c) culture and metaphysics in use (Schein,
1992; v. Krogh and Roos, 1995); and (d) aesthetics in use (Monthoux, 1993;
Scharmer, 1991). In all these examples, knowledge is considered to be embodied in
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situated practice (Orlikowski, 1996). It is not external to the reality it describes but in
the midst of it (Polanyi 1966). Hence, knowledge is not about describing but about
enacting the reality it refers to (Argyris, Putnam, and Smith, 1985).
However, Nonaka and Takeuchi’s (1995) work still does not answer one
question: What is the force that drives the knowledge spiral itself?
Act III: Knowledge About Thought as the Origin of Doing Things. The
question “What is the force that drives the knowledge spiral?” shifts the focus of
attention to the third platform. On this stage, knowledge is situated in an incipient, not-
yet-enacted reality that is brought into existence through an act of action-intuition
(Nishida) or presencing (Husserl, Heidegger). The terms “action-intuition” and
“presencing” signify a state of mind that transcends the distinctions between “inside”
and “outside,” between “I” and “thou,” and between knowing and acting. The focus of
attention is on the emergent common ground from which all these distinctions arise in
the first place. Thus Act III is based on the interplay among three stages, on which the
explicit, the tacit-embodied, and not-yet-embodied forms of knowing are enacted
simultaneously.
Self-transcending knowledge is the scarcest resource and the most difficult to
attain. Hamel and Prahalad (1994) give an example of how it relates to the other two
stages of knowledge formation.
Competition for the future can be linked to pregnancy.
Like competition for the future, pregnancy has three
stages--conception, gestation, and delivery. These three
stages correspond in competition to foresight and
intellectual leadership, competition to foreshorten the
migration paths, and competition for market position
and share. It is the last stage of competition that is the
focus of strategy textbooks and strategic planning
exercises. Typically, the assumption is that the product
or service concept is well established, the dimensions of
competition are well-defined, and the boundaries of the
industry have stabilized. But focusing on the last stage of
market-based competition, without a deep
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understanding of premarket competition, is like trying to
make sense of the process of childbirth without any
insight into conception and gestation.
The question for managers to ask themselves at
this point is which stage receives the bulk of our time
and attention: conception, gestation, or labor and
delivery? Our experience suggests that most managers
spend a disproportionate amount of time in the delivery
room, waiting for the miracle of birth. But as we all
know, the miracle of birth is most unlikely, unless
there’s been some activity nine months previously.
(Ibid., p. 46)
3 Three Underlying Epistemologies
Explicit, tacit, and self-transcending knowledge are based on three different
bodies of epistemological assumptions--that is, three different relationships between
knower and known (see Table 2).
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Table 2: Three Epistemologies
Epistemology
K1Explicit Knowledge
K2Tacit-Embodied Knowledg
K3 Self-Transcending Knowledg
Type of Knowledge Knowledge about things Knowledge about doingthings
Knowing about thought-origins for doing things
Data External reality Enacted reality Not-yet-enacted reality
Experience Type Observation experience Action experience Aesthetic experience
Action-Reflection Ratio Reflection without actionReflection-on-action Reflection-in-action
Truth Matching reality Producing reality Presencing reality
Truth Criterion Can you observe it? Can you produce it? Can you presence it?
Perspective External:View on objective reality
Internal:View on enacted reality
Both internal and external:View on not-yet-enacted reality
Subject-Object Relation Separation Unity (after action) Unity (in action)
Explicit knowledge captures knowledge about things. The data point is
observed reality. The experience type is based on observation. The conceptualization is
usually based on reflection without action. The criterion for truth is the test, “Can you
observe it?” (see Table 2).
Tacit-embodied knowledge captures knowledge about things we do (Nonaka
and Takeuchi, 1995; Polanyi, 1966). The data point is situated, enacted reality. The
experience type is based on action. Thus capturing this type of knowledge requires
“reflection-on-action,” reflecting on one’s actions. The ultimate criterion for truth is
the test, “Can you create it?” (Argyris, Putnam, and Smith, 1985).
Not-yet-embodied knowledge captures knowledge about the sources or “place”
from where thought and action come into being. The focus is on the primary ground
from which human action arises in the first place. The data point is not-yet-enacted
reality (Fichte, 1982; Rosch, forthcoming). The experience type is based on aesthetic or
pure experience (Nishida 1990). In order to capture this most upstream level of social
action, we have to engage in what Schön (1983) calls “reflection-in-action,” in what
Csikszentmihalyi (1991) calls “flow,” or in what Rosch calls primary knowing (1999;
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forthcoming). The ultimate criterion for truth is the test, “Can you tune into and
presence it?” (Rosch, 1999; Scharmer, 2000).
The three forms of knowledge--explicit, tacit-embodied, and self-transcending-
-constitute three fundamentally different epistemological stances--that is, three
different relationship modes between the knower and the known. Each form of
knowledge relates to the reality that it describes from a different point of view.
Explicit knowledge relates to the reality that it denotes from outside. The
statement “this bread costs one dollar” does not enable the knower to actually produce
the thing (bread) that the knowledge signifies. The knower produces a statement
about, but cannot bring into existence, the known. From this point of view,
knowledge represents and denotes a thing.
Embodied tacit knowledge relates to the reality that it signifies from within. Here
the knower does not talk about bread but actually bakes and produces bread. Tacit
knowledge enables the knower to produce and bring into existence the known. From
this point of view, knowledge denotes not a thing but a living process.
Self-transcending knowledge relates to reality both from within and from outside.
The locus of the denoted reality (outside the knower in the case of explicit knowledge
and inside in the case of tacit-embodied knowledge) is both outside and within the
knower. Or, as Nishida puts it, it is neither outside nor inside the knower (Nishida,
1990). From this point of view, knowledge emerges from a basho, a field or shared
space that gives rise to the process of enacting tacit knowledge in the first place
(Nishida 1987; Nonaka and Konno 1998). This epistemological stance is echoed in the
forthcoming work by Rosch who talk about the primary knowledge of wisdom
awareness. Mind and world, says cognitive psychologist Rosch, are not separate but
two aspects of the same underlying field (forthcoming).
Summing up, explicit knowledge is based on the separation of the knower and
the known, whereas both forms of tacit knowledge are based on the unity of subject
and object. However, this unity differs in one important way. The difference lies in the
locus from which the self conceives the unity of subject and object (action). In the case
of tacit-embodied knowledge, the self conceives of its action after the fact (reflection-
on-action). In the case of self-transcending knowledge, the self conceives of its action
while acting. Because aesthetic experiences are often described as being simultaneously
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inside oneself (acting) and outside of oneself (observing), the various types of self-
transcending knowing all qualify as genuine aesthetic experience.3
4 Three Bashos, Three Metamorphoses
The shift from the second (K2) to the third epistemology (K3)--that is, from
organizing around tacit-embodied to organizing around not-yet-embodied knowledge--
is not only at issue in cutting-edge practices in knowledge management, as we will see
below, but is also at issue in contemporary philosophy’s transition from “modern” to
“postmodern” modes of thought. At the heart of this underlying theme of twentieth-
century philosophy, and at the heart of the thinking of Martin Heidegger, Edmund
Husserl, Kitaro Nishida, and Friedrich Nietzsche, is a fundamentally different way of
sensing, approaching, and conceiving of reality.
Martin Heidegger begins with the question: “Why are there beings at all, and
why not rather nothing?” (Heidegger 1993). With this question Heidegger tries to
conceive of reality from the locus of origin, from a space in which being emerges out of
nothing, out of no thing. This locus allows Heidegger to approach reality in a radically
different way. From this point of view, reality is not simply “out there.” Rather, reality
is brought forth from absence into presence, from concealment into unconcealment.
The process of “presencing” and disclosing reality is the essence of true thinking.
Kitaro Nishida articulated the same turn from an Eastern point of view. In “An
Inquiry into the Good,” he articulates the locus and starting point for his
philosophizing as “pure experience.” Pure experience, according to Nishida (1990), has
three defining properties. It (1) precedes the subject-object distinction, (2) conceives
reality from within, and (3) accomplishes a union of knowledge, feeling, and volition.
Reality, according to Nishida, is the self-development of a single system. Reality is that
“which constitutes in itself a single system.” The unifier of reality is the self. This self is
not a thing, but an activity. The activity in which the self unites with things is called
love. Hence, real knowledge is based on the unity of subject and object--that is, on
love (Nishida, 1990).
In his later works, Nishida extended his notion of pure experience into his idea
of self-consciousness and later to his notion of “basho,” field or shared space. Nishida’s
basho is never a subject or an object but a place or field of emerging relationships. Or,
as Carter (1997) puts it, “basho is the given-in-intuition prior to analysis and expression
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of objectification.” Basho is the primal place/field/system that gives rise to knowledge
and knowing. Nishida distinguishes among three types of bashos that correspond with
the three forms of knowledge introduced above (Carter, 1997; Wargo, 1972).
The first universal basho is what Nishida calls the “universal of judgment.” It
refers to and gives rise to the content of judgment and knowledge. The second
universal basho is what Nishida calls the “universal of self-consciousness.” This basho is
more fundamental and contains the first basho. The second basho focuses on how the
content of judgment (first basho) arises in consciousness and self-consciousness in the
first place. It reflects on the relationship and the activity of the self to the content of
judgment. The third basho is the deepest and most fundamental field. Called “the
intelligible universal,” it envelops the first two and moves attention from the self and
self-consciousness to acts of consciousness in which the self is no longer the focus.
Nishida’s three universal bashos relate to the three forms and epistemologies of
knowledge as follows. The first basho corresponds with K1, the epistemology of
explicit knowledge insofar as both focus on objective things in the external world. The
second basho corresponds with K2, the epistemology of tacit-embodied knowledge
insofar as both focus on the relationship between content and self, i.e., on the process of
coming-into-being of the content. Both are based on reflection-on-action. The third
basho corresponds with the epistemology of self-transcending knowledge insofar as
both focus on that which transcends the current self toward the most ultimate common
ground (source) that is prior to subject-object distinctions. Both are based on
reflection-in-action (Schön), “action-intuition,” (Nishida), or what Rosch refers to as
“primary knowing.”
. Primary knowing, according to Rosch, differs from our standard way of
cognition in that it knows “by means of interconnected wholes (rather than isolated
contingent parts) and by means of timeless, direct, presentation (rather than through
stored re-presentations). Such knowing is ‘open,‘ rather than determinate; and a sense
of unconditional value, rather than conditional usefulness, is an inherent part of the act
of knowing itself. Action from awareness is claimed to be spontaneous, rather than the
result of decision making; it is compassionate, since it is based on wholes larger than
the self; and it can be shockingly effective.” (forthcoming, p. 2)
Let us close the philosophical investigation of self-transcending knowledge
with a quotation from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The passage deals with three
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metamorphoses of the spirit. These can be read as embodiments of the movement
through the three bashos discussed above:
Of the three metamorphoses of the spirit I tell you: how
the spirit becomes a camel; and the camel, a lion; and
the lion, finally, a child.
There is much that is difficult for the spirit, the
strong reverent spirit that would bear much: but the
difficult and the most difficult are what its strength
demands.
What is difficult? asks the spirit that would bear
much, and kneels down like a camel wanting to be well
loaded. What is most difficult, O heroes, asks the spirit
that would bear much, that I may take it upon myself
and exult in my strength? Is it not humbling oneself to
wound one’s haughtiness? Letting one’s folly shine to
mock one’s wisdom?
Or is it this: parting from our cause when it
triumphs? Climbing high mountains to tempt the
temper? ...
Or is it this: loving those who despise us and
offering a hand to the ghost that would frighten us?
All these most difficult things the spirit that
would bear much takes upon itself: like the camel that,
burdened, speeds into the desert, thus the spirit speeds
into its desert.
In the loneliest desert, however, the second
metamorphosis occurs: here the spirit becomes a lion
who would conquer his freedom and be master in his
own desert, here he seeks out his last master: he wants
to fight him and his last god; for ultimate victory wants
to fight with the great dragon.
Who is the great dragon whom the spirit will no
longer call lord and god? “Thou shalt” is the name of the
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great dragon. But the spirit of the lion says, “I will.”
“Thou shalt” lies in his way, sparkling like gold, an
animal covered with scales; and on every scale shines a
golden “thou shalt.”
Values, thousands of years old, shine on these
scales; and thus speak the mightiest of all dragons: “All
value of all things shines on me. All value has long been
created, and I am all created value. Verily, there shall be
no more ‘I will.’” Thus speaks the dragon.
My brothers, why is there a need in the spirit for
the lion? Why is not the beast of burden, which
renounces and is reverent, enough?
To create new values--that even the lion cannot
do; but the creation of freedom for oneself for new
creation--that is within the power of the lion. The
creation of freedom for oneself and a sacred “No” even
to duty--for that, my brothers, the lion is needed. To
assume the right to new values--that is the most
terrifying assumption for a reverent spirit that would
bear much. Verily, to him it is preying, and a matter for
beast of prey. He once loved “thou shalt” as most
sacred: now he must find illusion and caprice even in the
most sacred, that freedom from his love may become his
prey: the lion is needed for such a prey.
But say, my brothers, what can the child do that
even the lion could not do? Why must the preying lion
still become a child? The child is innocence and
forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self propelled
wheel, a first movement, a sacred “Yes” is needed: the
spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost
to the world now conquers his own world.
Of the three metamorphoses of the spirit I have
told you: how the spirit became a camel; and the camel,
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18
a lion; and the lion, finally, a child. Thus spoke
Zarathustra. And at that time he sojourned in the town
that is called The Motley Cow. (Nietzsche 1982, pp.
137–40)
In the first metamorphosis the spirit becomes a camel by submitting completely
to external reality, bearing whatever it must: "What is most difficult, O heroes, asks
the spirit that would bear much, that I may take it upon myself and exult in my
strength?" The camel relates to reality from outside, which is isomorphic to how the
knowledge of the first epistemology (and the first basho) relates to the reality that they
denote: from outside.
In the second metamorphosis the camel becomes a lion. In the "loneliest desert"
the spirit meets the great dragon, whose name is "thou shalt," but the spirit of the lion
says "I will." Moving from “thou shalt” to “I will” shifts the origin of action from a
reality that is externally based to one that is internally based. The lion relates to his
will-based reality from within, which is isomorphic to how the knowledge of the second
epistemology (or basho, respectively) relates to the reality that it denotes: from within.
In the third metamorphosis the lion finally becomes a child: "The child is
innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self propelled wheel, a first
movement." Moving from a "sacred No" to a "sacred Yes" again shifts the relationship
mode between self and reality, or knower and known. In order to engage in "a new
beginning, a game, a self propelled wheel," the self has to transcend the lower self of
the lion, stuck in his own “I will,” to reach the emerging movement of the self-
propelling wheel. The way the child relates to his "sacred Yes" is isomorphic to how
the knowledge (knower) of the third epistemology relates to reality (known): both
from outside and from within at the same time, or, as Rosch puts it, as two aspects of the
same primary field.
5 Learning Infrastructures: The Triadic Spiral of Knowledge Creation
What does all of that have to do with knowledge management?
Everything. Companies, consultants, trainers, and business schools usually have
fairly well developed practices about how to manage and disseminate explicit
Self-transcending Knowledge
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19
knowledge, slightly less sophisticated practices about how to manage and disseminate
tacit-embodied knowledge, and relatively undeveloped practices about how to manage
and disseminate forms of self-transcending knowing. In fact, the very term “managing
knowledge” seems inappropriate at this point. Knowledge management is a typical
“stage one” term. We can manage data banks. But we cannot manage human
experience.
Here I distinguish among three types of learning infrastructures.
Type I learning infrastructures are based on a one-dimensional process. Type I
learning infrastructures include web sites, electronic databases, films, books, and other
forms of self-service media. These learning infrastructures are ideal for disseminating
explicit knowledge and are easily scalable and replicable.
Type II learning infrastructures are based on two-dimensional processes that build
on the interplay between action and reflection-on-action (Kolb, 1984). Examples of Type II
learning infrastructures are all sorts of parallel structures in which practitioners reflect
and learn from their experience on a regular and repetitive basis (Bushe and Shani,
1991). Schein (1995), for example, describes the institutions of the MIT Learning
Consortium as a set of parallel learning structures within and among companies. Type II
learning infrastructures are required for all systems that focus on surfacing and
disseminating tacit knowledge through sharing experiences. Since reflection-on-action
usually requires shared time and shared space among a group of practitioners, Type II
learning infrastructures tend to be much more expensive and difficult to scale and
replicate.
Type III learning infrastructures are based on three-dimensional processes that
build on the interplay between shared action (praxis), shared reflection, and forming shared
will (Scharmer, 1999; Senge and Scharmer, 1997). Type III infrastructures allow
practitioners to repetitively go through the whole cycle of shared praxis, shared
reflection, and formation of shared will, which then leads again to a new praxis. Since
the surfacing of both tacit knowledge (shared reflection) and self-transcending
knowledge (formation of shared will) requires a very high quality of shared time and
space, Type III learning infrastructures are the most expensive and difficult to attain.
Figure 2 depicts the three-dimensional knowledge spiral that enables organizing
and strategizing around not-yet-embodied knowledge. For example, a global health
systems company takes its leadership team to three-day off-site meetings every six
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20
months. In these meetings, the managers engage in the following three activities: they
reflect on their experiences and identify key learnings; work to uncover what truly
motivates each individual; and use this knowledge to redefine the agenda of action for
the upcoming months.
Insert figure 2 about here
Figure 2: The Spiral of Self-Transcending Knowledge Creation
The more distributed organizations and networks of collaboration become, the
more critical Type III learning infrastructures tend to be, because shared praxis, shared
reflection, and formation of shared will are the glue that keeps distributed networks in synch
and together.
Shared praxis is everything that people do together. All “communities of
practice” (Wenger, 1998) evolve around what people do together. Everyone who has
gone through a real “action experience” with others knows that after such an event the
nature of their relationship is different. However, most virtual teams do not qualify for
shared experience. Distributed work does not create community. Shared experience
does. Only when distributed work is perceived as a shared body of action can the intangible
nature of community evolve and manifest.
Shared reflection includes all shared experiences and the expression of their
underlying themes, puzzles, and questions. All “communities of reflection” revolve
Self-transcending Knowledge
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21
around what people reflect on and think about together. However, most discussions
and discussion groups do not qualify as shared reflection or communities of reflection.
Abstract discussion and the mere transaction of speech acts do not create community.
Shared reflection on common experiences does. Only when abstract discussion turns
into shared bodies of reflection can the intangible nature of community evolve and emerge.
Formation of shared will is the most rare and least tangible of the three sources of
networked community-building. It happens in conversations in which participants
form and articulate a common intention. “Communities of commitment” (Kofman
and Senge) and “communities of creation” (Sawhney and Prandelli) revolve around
what people care about and wanting to create together. However, most discussions
about setting goals, targets, and objectives do not qualify as the formation of shared
will. Negotiations about targets and objectives do not create community. The
formation of shared will does. The difference between the two is that the former is a
one-stage process, and the latter is a four-stage process.
Negotiating objectives starts where it ends: with negotiating objectives. Shared
will formation starts with subjective reality and ends with objective realities. Shared
will formation starts with the expression of individual experiences (phase I: individual
perspectives); continues with reflecting on common themes, questions, and patterns
that underlie the various individual perspectives (phase II: dialogue); proceeds with
uncovering what the participating individuals truly care about and what they really
want to create (phase III: reconceiving purpose); and ends with agreed upon leverage
points and commitments to act (phase IV: objectives).
Hence what appears to be the same, the negotiation of objectives and the
formation of shared will, is not. The former starts and ends with objectives and
objective realities. The latter is a process that uses the eye of the needle of individuality
to mold the collective will into a new social sculpture (Beuys 1992). It starts with
intrasubjective realities (phase I), continues with intersubjective (phase II) and
transsubjective (phase III) realities, and concludes with redefining objective realities
(phase IV). Only when abstract discussions of group objectives turn into a shared body of
collective will can the most intangible sphere of community-building be actualized
(Scharmer, forthcoming).
Summing up, the core principles that underlie Type III learning infrastructures
are those of wholeness and movement. These interweave and integrate the three domains
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by (1) turning distributed labor into shared experience, (2) turning abstract discussions
into shared reflection, and (3) turning negotiation of objectives into the formation of
collective will. All three represent different aspects of a single underlying process: the
process of self-transcending knowledge creation.
6 Field-Logics of Languaging: Requisite Conversational Complexity
The single most critical issue affecting success or failure of knowledge
infrastructures is whether the communication in use has the conversational complexity
required to access the particular type of knowledge. Many KM systems fail because
they do not meet this criterion. Without the capacity for dialogue, for instance, teams
are unable to express their tacit, taken-for-granted assumptions about how reality
works.
The model in Figure 3 outlines a process archetype that I have seen in
numerous management and organizational settings and developed through many
consulting, action research, and community-building experiences (Scharmer,
forthcoming). The model is based on four generic stages and field-logics of listening and
"languaging."
Insert figure 3 about here
Figure 3: Four Field-Logics of Languaging
Within each of these four different field-logics, people relate to each other at a
different level of conversational complexity by using different kinds of language
structures:
- in field-logic I by talking nice, or using rule-reproducing language games,
- in field-logic II by talking tough, or using rule-revealing language games,
- in field-logic III by using reflective dialogue, or rule-intuiting language games, and
- in field-logic IV by using generative dialogue, or rule-generating language games.
The four field-logics differ in two dimensions (see Figure 3). First, the speech
acts are either self-reflective or non-self-reflective; that is, they either refer to the self
Self-transcending Knowledge
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who is speaking or they do not. An example of a non-self-reflective speech act is: “We
are in trouble because the new Chinese competitors do not play according to the rules
of the game.” An example of a reflective speech act is: “We are in trouble because we
failed to meet the challenge of our new Chinese competitors.” Second, the respective
speech acts differ in that they are driven either by the primacy of wholeness (in which
the focus is on unity) or by the primacy of parts (in which the focus is on differences).
Throughout the full cycle, the conversation moves through four field-logics of
performed speech acts. Each speech act relates differently to the rules of the underlying
language game. Rule-repeating (talking nice), rule-revealing (talking tough), rule-
intuiting (reflective dialogue), and rule-generating (generative dialogue) speech acts
produce different kinds of conversations, each of which allows participants to access
and communicate different types and layers of knowledge and knowing.
Each of the previously discussed forms of knowledge requires a different level
of conversational complexity in order to be accessed and disseminated in organizations.
The requisite conversational complexity for creating and disseminating K1 knowledge
usually tends toward the second field-logic of communication (talking tough). In order
to access and disseminate the tacit dimension of knowledge in use (K2) throughout
organizations, conversational complexity must move one quadrant up, to reflective
dialogue (Figure 3). Finally, in order to access and enhance the not-yet-embodied
dimension of knowing, the requisite conversational complexity again moves one
quadrant up, to generative dialogue (Figure 3). Without the capacity for generative
dialogue, teams are unable to tap into the sources of imaginative, inspirative, and
intuitive knowledge. Thus without the fourth field-logic of languaging they lack the
capacity to innovate by “sensing and actualizing what wants to emerge” (Jaworski and
Scharmer, 2000).
The leadership challenge is to help teams and institutions get “unstuck” in the
first quadrant (talking nice), and increase their capacity to move up across all four
quadrants and field-logics of conversational action. What sort of interventions or
speech acts can help leaders move the field-logic up?
In shifting from field-logic I to field-logic II, the principal leverage is based on
reconnecting what we think with what we say. The work of Argyris (1992) on accessing
the “left-hand column” focuses on these kinds of interventions. An example of this
kind of intervention would be to create a space that allows participants to articulate
Self-transcending Knowledge
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opposing views and to confront difficult issues. No learning or genuine knowledge
creation will ever occur without moving the field-logic from the first to the second
quadrant, for field-logic I only reproduces what is already known.
The principal leverage in field-logic III is based on reconnecting what we think
and say with what we do. The work of Argyris and Schön (1996), Schein (1992, 1993),
Isaacs (1993), and Srivastva and Cooperider (1990) addresses this issue and focuses on
“double loop learning” (Argyris and Schön), “taken for granted assumptions” (Schein),
“containers of conversation” (Isaacs), and “appreciative inquiry” (Srivastva and
Cooperider).
The principal leverage in moving from field-logic III to IV is based on
reconnecting what we think, say, and do with what we see. Examples of this rare event
are difficult to summarize. Sometimes they occur, after many days of shared work, as
intentional quietness or sacred silence (Isaacs 1999). The issue is how to move from
reflective dialogue--that is, from talk that revolves around tacit-embodied knowledge
to the emergent space of presencing (Husserl, Heidegger) and action-intuition
(Nishida)--that is, toward the self-transcending dimension of knowing.
The four field-logics represent four generic attractors that define the rules
according to which the drama of human conversation plays out. They differ in the
degree of complexity that they are able to capture and represent. The more teams and
companies learn to move with ease across all four quadrants or field-logics of
conversational action, the more they will succeed in turning their customer
relationships into shared bodies of imagination, inspiration, and intuition for
continuous, radical innovation.
7 Concluding Discussion: Bringing Your Self into Reality
What new insights does the distinction between two types of tacit knowledge,
embodied and not-yet-embodied, add to the discussion? Why not just use the old
distinction between explicit and tacit?
We have discussed five distinct areas in which the differentiation between
tacit-embodied and self-transcending knowledge does, in fact, add new insights.
(1) Epistemology. The theoretical argument is that tacit-embodied and self-transcending
knowledge are grounded in different epistemologies, and, as discussed above,
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different bashos. What Nishida calls the second basho, the universal of self-
consciousness, corresponds with the epistemology of tacit-embodied knowledge in
that both focus on the relationship between content and self, or knower and known,
respectively. Both are grounded in reflection-on-action. The third basho, the
intelligible universal, corresponds with the epistemology of self-transcending
knowledge in that both focus on that which transcends the current self toward the
ultimate common ground that is prior to subject-object distinctions. Both are based
on reflection-in-action, or, as Nishida puts it, “action-intuition.”
(2) Praxis. The practical argument is that the managing and nurturing of tacit and self-
transcending knowledge requires managers to create different types of
environments and learning infrastructures. Tacit knowledge requires Type II
infrastructures, which are based on the interplay of action and reflection-on-action.
Self-transcending knowledge requires a Type III infrastructure that evolves during
the interplay of shared action, shared reflection, and formation of shared will. Thus
managers design and engage in different process types, depending on whether they
organize around tacit or not-yet-embodied knowledge.
(3) Requisite conversational complexity. The requisite conversational complexity differs not
only for explicit and tacit knowledge, but also for tacit and self-transcending
knowledge. Whereas tacit knowledge requires reflective dialogue as the minimum
condition of conversational complexity (field-logic III), self-transcending
knowledge needs generative dialogue in order to emerge in conversations (field-logic
IV).
(4) Strategy. Self-transcending knowledge matters because within increasing return-
based competition, nothing counts more than precognition--that is, the ability to
sense and organize around not-yet-embodied knowledge.
(5) Self. “Ba may also be thought of as the recognition of the self in all,” write Nonaka
and Konno (1998). I would like to echo this statement from a Fichtean
perspective: Ba may also be thought of as the space that allows you to bring your self
into reality. Both sequences, recognizing your self in what surrounds you, and
bringing your self into reality, are part of a larger social breathing rhythm that keeps
societies alive across generations and civilizations. The essence of this breathing
Self-transcending Knowledge
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rhythm concerns the capacity of the self to transcend and jump beyond the
boundaries of one’s current organization.
Thus there is both theoretical and practical evidence that the concept of self-
transcending knowledge constitutes a knowledge type sui generis. The more the world
economy moves toward the logic of increasing returns and, as a consequence, the
leadership challenge becomes one of being “in front of a blank canvas,” the more the
capacity to sense and actualize self-transcending knowledge will turn out to be the
most critical source of future competitive advantage.
Self-transcending Knowledge
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1 An earlier version of this paper will be published in: Nonaka, I. and D. Teece (ed.): Managing IndustrialKnowledge, Sage (forthcoming)
2 The twelve types of knowledge represent an analytical distinction. In practice, all dimensions of knowledge
creation are intertwined. The two cornerstones of the field are the upper-left and lower-right fields: know-what about
results and performance, and intuition which reshapes and reframes itself and all 11 other fields To test whether the
framework is a useful device we have to ask whether the lower-left (know-who) and the upper-right fields
(reflection-in-action) refer to the same or distinct knowledge types. An example of know-who is to outline the
fundamental causes and belief systems (such as shared value standards or purpose statements). Reflection-in-
action is an entirely different form of knowledge, that does not refer to things (such as mission statements) but to
“no-things” at work. Hence, the framework based on the differentiation among ontological (four streams of
action) and epistemological (three forms of knowledge) assumptions does create new distinctions.3 The term “aesthetic” refers to those kinds of experiences that meet the following three conditions. The
subject of experience (a) sees something (seeing 1), (b) observes her observing at the same time (seeing 2), and
(c) closes the feedback loop between “seeing 1” and “seeing 2” (“seeing 3”). Hence, in an aesthetic experience,
the subject is within (watching something) and outside of herself (watching herself) at the same time. Technically
speaking we refer to those experiences as aesthetic experiences that have the property of synchronicity between
action and reflection, i.e., zero feedback delay.
© 1998 C. O. Scharmer
(Fig. 3)
Sel f-refl ective Speech Acts
Primacy ofthe Par ts
Pr imacy ofthe W hole I .
talk ing nice
* primacy of being pol i te* rule-reproduci ng speech
acts: re-enacti ng oldlanguage games
* not to say what you thi nk
I I .talk ing tough
* primacy of confl i ct and clash* rule reveal ing speech acts* i nterventi on type: say what
you thi nk
I I I .reflective dialogue
* primacy of surfaci ng mentalm odels and assumptions
* rule-refl ecting speech acts* i nterventi on type: do what you
say, say what you thi nk
IV .generati ve dialogue
* sel f-presenci ng and tappi ng i ntothe sources of emergent real i ty
* rule-generati ng speech acts* i ntervent ion: see what you do,
do what say, say what you think
Non-S el f-refl ective Speech Acts
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